Our student organization, Turning Point USA at Clemson, tabled near Library Bridge on campus Wednesday in opposition to affirmative action. We hosted a “bake sale” in order to bring attention to the discrepancy that higher education institutions exhibit towards different races, specifically in the college admissions process.
Although NO cookies were actually sold, the poster we displayed listed different prices that represented the different standards set for different races in the admissions process.
Many colleges have openly set different standards for admission on the basis of race. For example, according to the Department of Justice, a recent study suggested that “Asian American and White applicants have only one-tenth to one-fourth of the likelihood of admission as African American students with comparable academic credentials” at Yale University.
While affirmative action policies initially had good intentions, in practice, affirmative action has made America move farther away from equality by undermining meritocracy.
Furthermore, our organization believes that discrimination of any kind, including the discrimination practiced through affirmative action, is not only morally wrong, but it has substantial negative consequences, including setting students up for failure by placing them in environments they are not equipped to succeed in.
In sum, affirmative action policies are inherently racist and discriminatory and should have no place in the college admission process.
Unlike the universities that implement affirmative action programs and set different standards for different races, we handed out cookies to ALL students today — regardless of race.
Taylor Rogers is the president and Taylor Adams is the social media strategist of Clemson University’s chapter of Turning Point USA, a nonprofit that advocates for conservative politics on university campuses.